Connection (CD)

The Green Children

Amoeba Review

07/22/2013

Europop duo Green Children make music that fairies dream of. Songs like “Feel the Light” are full of synthesizers that glitter like the night sky and vocals that breeze through the trees, as the duo surpass many of their brethren by giving their beat-driven music a distinctive edge — in this case, it comes in hints of New Age dreaminess, though it’s been toned down since the days when they would name their songs after dragons and black magic. Connection is rooted in real life emotions and relationships, as its title would suggest. The title track shows us what they’re all about, as singer Milla Sunde coos a childlike love song (“the tides of the sea, the roots of the trees, the lock and the key, it’s like you and me”) amid harp, synth strings and an ’80s dance beat, like the 2010s answer to Erasure. On “Possessed,” Sunde belts with Celtic-flavored tones and plays with pronunciation while musical partner Marlow Bevan concocts a minor-key dance ballad, like the Cocteau Twins dancing with La Roux. It’s not about what Sunde is singing about as much as how she glows in her surroundings — check out “Norwegian Dream” for an exotic take on the New Age classic “Crockett’s Theme” (from “Miami Vice”), sung in Sunde’s native language. Credit Green Children with making us want to dust off our Pure Moods CDs; Connection is a dreamy, dancey good time.